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Paul Pattison and Luke Minaker knew they were onto something when they got an email from the mother of a nine-year-old who read the first instalment of their interactive story, Weirdwood Manor.

“She wrote that she couldn’t get her son to pick up a book,” said Pattison, technical director of All Play No Work, producer of the iPad app. “She got the app for her son and he went through it in two nights. He finished both books.

“And then because we don’t have book 3 out yet, unprompted by her he went over to the bookshelf and pulled off a paperback and started reading chapter books again.”

While the storytelling app had already shot to ‘Best New App’ in Apple’s app store, chalking up 5,000 downloads in the first two weeks after it was released, the realization that it converted a reluctant nine-year-old to an avid reader confirmed for Pattison and Minaker they were on the right track.

“It is a common theme we have been hearing,” said Pattison. “They get to this age range of eight to 12 and they stop being interested in reading. Video games, Snapchat — all these other things dominate.

“Although we’re an app in digital, what we really wanted to do is re-engage kids in reading, tap into their imagination have them rediscover that.”

The Incredible Tales of Weirdwood Manor started out as a three-month project. Four years later, the transmedia project, launched in Apple’s app store as an interactive iPad children’s series that is a kind of Harry Potter meets Lemony Snicket.

“We wanted to combine the best elements of books, gaming and animation and bring them together and merge them into this new format,” said Pattison. “It is a book — you’ll notice when you go to the screen there are little text boxes on every screen that the kids have to read.

“But we put a lot of effort into the artwork. All the scenes are done in 3D, so the first thing that strikes people when they look at is it looks like you’re watching an animated film.”

Minaker, whose has a background in digital animation, used to work with the Toronto-based Pattison and called him up after he decided on a career change and left Vancouver’s Rainmaker Entertainment. He was hired as the writer and art director, expecting a small project ahead.

“What was originally going to be a little storybook app became a huge epic fantasy novel,” said Minaker.

“And franchise,” added Pattison.

Like the Harry Potter series, it spans a wide range of ages. The target is six to 12, but kids as young as four have enjoyed it (parent alert, only if your youngster is OK with dragons coming to life). The child can opt to read it or, for early and non-readers, have the app do the narrating, with each word highlighted so they can follow along. Like Harry Potter, Weirdwood is an enchanting children’s tale that draws in adults.

As the first story opens and you meet Oliver on his way to meet his hero inventor Arthur Weirdwood, it’s like you’re entering a richly animated movie complete with theme music, but one combined with the printed tale.

The $2.99US purchase price for the app, which goes up to $4.99 starting Nov. 1, includes the app and books 1 and 2. There are three more books in the set, with one to be released every two months at a price of $3.99. Weirdwood Manor is available in Apple’s app store in Canada, the US and other countries.

Plans are to extend to franchise with a hardcover printed book in a reverse publishing kind of model and the start of a related series.

“The real big idea of this property is that it’s not just an iPad app, it’s truly transmedia ... and we have a TV pitch where the iPad story ends we pick up with the kids a year later,” said Pattison.

It started as a self-funded project, but Pattison said “as this vision got bigger and bigger we realized we needed more capital,” and they received a loan from the Canadian Media Fund. That money ran out close to two years ago and they are back to being self-funding.

Pattison started All Play No Work as a partner company to his digital media services company Relish Interactive, which has offices in Vancouver and Toronto. In total, the two companies have 31 employees, with eight of those on the Weirdwood project.

Pattison and Minaker hope their project will change the traditional model of iPad apps as they relate to TV entertainment.

“We all felt like iPad apps really hadn’t had this kind of big budget movement,” said Minaker. “It’s such a great medium to provide stories and to provide visuals, yet nobody is really doing anything like this.

“We wanted to do something in reverse where the iPad app is the main event and the TV show is the spin off.”

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‘Transmedia’ story a big hit with young readers

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